States are already seeing their digital equity grants get canceled, and the divide hurts rural communities more

The program designed to erase the digital divide has
disappeared from the NTIA website. (Adobe photo)

Not long ago, rural hubs were burgeoning with plans and dollars directed at leveling the digital divide, but things have changed quickly. "Within days of President Donald Trump announcing on social media that he was ending the federal digital equity grant program, it looks to be consigned to history," reports Chris Teale of Route Fifty. The program's information has disappeared from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s website.

States are already seeing their funding cut. Aaron Wheeler, director of Washington state’s broadband office, said last week that "he had received a letter cancelling its $15.9 million grant award," Teale writes. During a press conference with Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, Wheeler said, “[Losing the funds] undermines our digital equity plan’s goals and perpetuates existing disparities that fall most heavily on our state's rural communities."

Maine had $35 million in grants canceled. The funds were intended "to help the state build digital skills and online safety, especially for rural and low-income residents, veterans and small businesses," Teale reports. "The state said 130,000 people would have been served by the three grants."

The State Educational Technology Directors Association said "at least 20 [states] have seen planning and capacity grant funding pulled by NTIA in light of the president’s order," Teale adds. Murray, "the architect of the Digital Equity Act, said during last week’s press conference that she wants her colleagues to step up, or else legal action could ensue."